1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electrical junction box such as connection box, relay box, etc. available with electrical equipment for automatic vehicles, for instance, and more specifically to an electrical junction box provided with box connectors for connecting wire harnesses to the junction box and a cable connector for connecting the remaining wire harnesses not connected to the junction box to each other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The background of the present invention will be explained with respect to is application to the electrical junction box used with an automotive vehicle.
In automotive vehicles, a number of junction boxes are arranged for interconnecting a battery, switches, and various electrical equipment. In an ordinary electrical junction box, cable wires are connected to contact pins implanted in the junction box through some female box connectors (referred to as wire-to-box connection or connector, hereinafter). In addition, in many cases, the remaining wires are directly connected to the other remaining wires via an ordinary cable connector (referred to as wire-to-wire connection or connector, hereinafter) near the junction box.
Therefore, in servicing a vehicle for maintenance and repair, since a mechanic must perform the wire-to-box connection work and the wire-to-wire connection work separately, the work is troublesome. Further, since the wire-to-wire connectors are usually left to hang in the air near the junction box, abnormal noises may be produced when the vehicle is running, so that it is necessary to fix the wire-to-wire connectors to the junction box or a vehicle body. Furthermore, since the wire-to-wire connectors are exposed to the outside, there exists another problem such that the wire-to-wire connector should be formed in a waterproof fashion to prevent a waterdrop from permeating therein.
The arrangement of the prior-art electrical junction box will be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the attached drawing under DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS.